Feeding mechanism for sewing machines



June 19, 1923. 1,459,119

s. G.. TATE FEEDING MECHANISM FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed May 6. 1918 4sheds-Sheet 1 auvemtoz June 19, 1923.

S. G. TATE FEEDING MECHANISM FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed May 6. 1918 4Sheecs$heet 2 June 3%, 1923.

s. G. TATE FEEDING MECHANISM FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed May 6. I918 4Sheets-Sheet 5 June 19, 1923.

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1,459,119 s. G. TATE v FEEDING MECHANISM FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed May6, 1918 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 avwwntoz Patented June 19, 1923. UNITED sSAMUEL GEORGE TATE, OF

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CHICAGO, ILLI'N 01s, ASSIGNOR To UNION SPECIAL MACHINE COMPANY, OFCHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

FEEDING MECHANISM FOR SEWING MACHINES,

['0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL GEORGE TATE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county Illinois, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Feedingv Mechanisms for Sewing Machines, ofwhich the following is a description, reference being had to theaccompanying drawing and to the figures of reference marked thereon.

The invention relates to new and useful improvements in feedingmechanisms for sewing machines, and more particularly to a feedingmechanism which is located and operates in a cylindrical work supportingarm;

An object of the invention is to provide a feeding mechanism for feedinga fabric lengthwise of a work supporting arm, which feeding mechanismincludes a feed dog, a feed'bar supporting the same and located in thework supporting arm and extending lengthwise thereof, with means foroperating the feed bar whereby the feeding surface of said feed dog willbe maintained in a horizontal plane during the entire movement in eachcycle.

A further object of the invention is to provide a feeding mechanism fora work sup-porting arm wherein the feed bar is moved back and forth by arocking frame at the opposite end of the supporting arm from the feeddog and wherein the feed bar is bodily raised and lowered.

A still further object of the invention is to provide differentialfeeding mechanism for a sewing machine having a work supporting armwherein the feed dogs are carried by independent feed bars disposed insaid arm, which bars are simultaneously raised and lowered and whereinthe feed bars are moved back and forth by independ ent connections witha single rocking frame disposed at the opposite end of the worksupporting arm from the feed dogs.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a sewing machinehaving a work supporting arm containing a looper shaft and feed bars,each of which bars carries a feed dog and containing a three armedrocking frame and adjustable connections therefrom to the loopersupporting shaft and the feed bars respectively.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a sewing machinehaving a horizontal arm containing a shaft and an 111 of Cook, State ofApplication filed May 6, 1918. Serial No. 232,899.

clined depending ing a work supporting arm with a train of devices foroperating a feedingmechanism from said shaft, which includes ahorizontally disposed lever located intermediatethe ends of thedepending portion, a horizontally pivoted rocking frame at the lower endof said depending portion, and a vertical link connection between therocking frame and the lever so as to avoid endwise thrust on the pivotof the rocking frame.

These and other objects will in part be obvious and will in part behereinafter more fully disclosed.

In the drawings which show by. way of illustration, one embodiment ofthe-invention:

Figure 1 is a view partly in plan and partly in section showing thearrangement of the work supporting arm and the driving connections whichare directly connected to the main shaft;

Fig. 2 is a view partly in front elevation and partly in section'showingparticularly the connections between the actuating shaft in thesupporting arm and the rocking frame at the lower end of the depending.arm, which rocking frame moves the feed bars back and forth, andalsoshowing the connection for oscillating the loopers;

Fig. 3 is a view partly in top plan and partly in section showing thefeeding devices in the work supporting arm and the connections foroperating the same Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section through the worksupporting arm and the lower end of the depending support therefor, alsoshowing the presser foot and the needles;

Fig. 5 is a view partly in section and partly in end elevation, showingthe work support, the looper, the presser foot,the

supporting member carryneedles and the parts adjacent the neethe line7-.7

of a tube, such as the sleeve of a garment or the tubular parts of aunion suit. Inthe present embodiment of the invention, themachineincludes a supporting base 1, having a standard 2 risingtherefrom which carries a laterally projecting arm 3 at its upper end.The main shaft 4; isjournaled at 5 in the standard and at 6 in thelaterally projecting arm 3. This main shaft 'ated by a belt Wheel 7.Projecting at right angles to the, laterally projecting arm and fromthe'free end thereof is an arm 8 in which is journaled a shaft 9. Theshaft 9 carries a spiral gear 10 which meshes with a spiral gear 11 onthe main shaft' l. Depending from the free end of the arm 8 is asupporting member 12 and extending from the lower endof the supportingmember 12 is a work supporting arm 13. The work supporting arm 13'extends underneath the laterally "projecting arm 3 and is spaced fromthe standard 2 so as to provide suitable Clearance to permit thematerial being stitched to be fed off from the end ofthe work supportingarm and by thestandard. This particular form of frame carrying the worksupporting arm is shown, described and claimed in my Patent No.1,370,164, dated March 1, 1921.

At the free end of the work supporting arm is a presser foot 14 carriedby a presser bar 15. Themachine as illustrated in the drawings, includesthree needles indicated at 16. These needles are carried by a needle bar17 which reciprocates in suitable bearings in the arm 3. The needle bar17 is actuated by a lever 18 which is fulcrumed at 19 and which isconnected at its rear end to a link 20 co-operating with 'a crank 21 inthe main shaft 4:.

Co-o-perating with the needles beneath the work support is a singlethreaded looper 22. This looper is fixed to a looper-supporting shaft 23which is mounted to oscillate in bearings 24- and 25, (see Figs. 3 and4). The material is fed ofl the work supporting arm by my improvedfeeding mechanism which, as herein shown, consists of two feed dogs, amainfeed dog 26 and an auxiliary feed dog 27. The main feed dog 26 iscarried by amain feed bar 28. Themain'feed bar 28 is secured by screws29 to a yoke 30 and by screws 31 to a yoke 32. These two yokes 30 and 32are similar in construction. Each yoke is pivotally attached to pivotpins 33 carried by and projecting from a sleeve 34 co-operating with aneccentric 35 on the loop er supporting shaft 23; The pivot holds theyoke andsleeve together, and while there may be little or no pivotalaction between these parts, at the same time the pivot prevents anypossible binding of the parts as the sleeve moves endwise on the loopershaft. It is understood of course, thatthere are'two eccentrics 35 andthat these eccentric are is Opentimed so as to operate together so as tobodily lift and lower the feed bar 31 and this bodily raises and lowersthe feed do 26 which is rigidlysecured to the main eed bar by means ofscrews 36. Inasmuch as the feed bar has two points of support which moveup and down in'unison, the feed dog may be set in horizontal positionand will maintain its horizontal position without tilting as it israised and lowered and moved back and forth so that all the teeth of thefeed dog will come into play in feeding the material. The sleeves 3 1are free" to slide endwise on the eccentrics with which they cooperate,which permits of free movements of the feed bar back and forth and alsoof free endwise movements of the looper shaft when the looper is movedlaterally.

The auxiliary feed dog 27 is carried by an auxiliary feed bar 37 and issecured thereto by screws 37 The main feed bar has a recess or channelextending from end to end thereof, in which the auxiliary feed bar islocated. The auxiliary feed bar is held in this recess or channel bycover plates 38 and 39 which are secured to the main feed bar bysuitable screws 40. 1 The auxiliary feed bar is free to move endwise inthe main feed bar but moves up and down in unison with the main feedbar,,so that the auxiliary feed dog will be lifted without tilting intoengagement with the material. Mounted at the opposite end of the worksupporting arm 13 from the feed dogs is a rocking frame 41. This rockingframe is in the form of a sleeve which is mounted on a transversesupporting shaft 42 fixed in suitable lugs 43 and 44: formed in theframe.

This rocking frame is shown in detail in Figure 6 of the drawings and itwill be noted that it has four arms which are indicated at -15, 46, 47and 48. The arm 46 is connected by a link 49 to the main feed bar. Saidlink is pivoted at 50 to the feed bar and is also connected at its otherend to a stud screw 51 which is adjustable in a segmental slot 52 formedin the arm 46.- As the rocking frame is oscillated, the link 49 willcause the main feed bar to move end- Wise back and forth. Each sleeve 34has a free movement on the eccentric with which it co-operates as abovenoted,-so as to per mit this movement. By adjusting the link connectionto the supplemental slot 52 the length of throw of the feed dog may bevaried. The arm 47 is connected by a link 57 to the auxiliary feed bar37. Said link 57 is pivoted at 58 to the auxiliarv feed bar and theother end of the link is connected to a screw stud 59. This screw studmoves freely in a segmental slot 60 in the arm 47. The screw stud 59 isshifted by means of a lever 61 which is connected by a link 62 to thelink 57 intermediate the ends of said link 5,7, the lever 61 beingfulcrumed on the cross shaft'4i2. The lever 61 at its other end isconnected by a link 63 with a hand adjusting lever 64 which may beshifted and held in shifted positions by any sultable means. As therocking frame 41 oscillates, this link 57 will move the auxiliary feeddogendwise, thus imparting feed movements to this auxiliary feed dog.The end wise movements of this auxiliary feed dog are entirelyindependent of the endwise movements of the main feed bar and may bemade longer or shorter as desired. By adjusting the link 57 along theslot of the arm 47, the length of throw of the auxiliary feed dog willbe varied. The slot 60 1n the arm 47 is concentric to the pivotalconnection 58 between the link 57 and the auxiliary feed bar when theauxiliary feed bar is at th extreme end of its feed stroke. As aconsequence, the adjustment of the link 57 to vary the throw of theauxiliary feed dog, will cause the auxiliary feed dog to engage thematerial at different points at the beginning of the feed stroke,depending upon the length of the feed stroke. In other words, no matterwhat may be the length of the stroke of the auxiliary feed dog, saidstroke always terminates atthe same point relative to the presser footand the needle. The slot 52 in the arm 4-6 is curved concentric to thepivotal point 50 between the link 49 and the main feed bar when the mainfeed dog is at the forward end of its stroke. As a consequence, anyadjustment in the stroke of the main feed bar will vary the point atwhich the main dog finishes its stroke, so that regardless of the lengthof the throw of the main feed dog, it will always begin its feed strokeat the same point relative to the presser foot and needle. By thisarrangement of the slots for adjusting the strokes of the feed dogs, Iam able to setthe feed dogs so that they will work very close together.If the feed dogs are moving in the same timing relative to each otherand without any differential movement of one relative to the other, theymay be set so that the rear end of the auxiliary dog is very close tothe front end of the main dog and when the feeding mechanisms areadjusted so that either one has a longer stroke than the other, therewill be no interference of one feed dog with the other.

The looper supporting shaft 23 is moved endwise in its bearings by alink 65 which is connected to the arm 45 of the rocking frame 41. Thislink has an adjustable connection with said arm so that the extent oflateral movement of the looper may be varied. This gives the needleavoiding movement to the looper. The rocking frame 41 is oscillated bymeans of a vertical link 66 which is connected to a ball stud 67 on theend of the arm 48. The other end of the link 66 is connected to a ballstud 68 on the end of a lever 69. The lever 69 is fulcrumed at 70 atapoint intermediate the ends of the lever. This fulcrum 7 0 is located ata point intermediate the ends of the vertical mem ber 12 of the frame.The other end of the lever 69 carries a ball stud 7lwhich is engaged byan eccentric strap 72 and the eccentric strap 72 co-operates with aneccentrio 73 on the shaft 9. 'As the shaft 9 'r0-. tates, the lever 69will be oscillated and this will oscillate the rocking frame 41. Asabove noted, the depending support 12 for thework supporting arm isinclinedto'the vertical. The rocking frame 4C1 is oscillated about ahorizontal axis which is at right an= gles to the longitudinal axis ofthe work supporting arm. The arms of the lever 69.

are of suflicient length so that theeccentric strap 72 and also thelink66 are vertical and thereforethe movements of the link 66 will be insubstantially a vertical line at right angles to the axis of the.rocking frame 50 that there 1s no endwise thrust on the rocking frame,nor on the arm 48 thereof, al-.

though this rocking frame is actuated" by a shaft which is notvertically over said con nection to the rocking frame but at one sidethereof. The looper shaft 23 is oscillated by an eccentric strap 74which co-operates with an eccentric 75 on the shaft 9. The loWer end ofthis eccentric strap is connected to a ball stud 76 at the end of an arm77 which arm is secured to the looper supportment with the material ormove the feed dog out of engagement with the material while maintainingthe feeding surface thereof in a horizontal position. It will be.further noted that all the operating parts for moving the feed bars backand forth are atthe rear end of the work supporting arm, so that thework supporting arm may be rela tively small. It will also be noted thatboth of the feed bars are moved back and forth by the same rocking framebut through separate connections therewith and that the strokes of thefeed bars may bevaried independently. It will be still further notedthat I- have provided a means for operating the feed bar and the loopershaft in the work supporting arm, which is very simple inconstructionand which includes an arrangement of parts wherein there is little or noob jectionable side thruston the actuating rocking frame. I f

It is obvious that minor changes in the details of construction andarrangement of the parts maybe made without departing from the spirit ofthe invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letthe feed dogs, means for oscillating the .rocking frame, anarm carried by the rocking frame and having a connection with the mainfeed bar and a second arm carried by the rocking frame and having anindependent connection with the auxiliary feed bar. I

2. A sewing machine including in combination a work supporting arm, amain feed dog and an auxiliary feed dog disposed at one end of said Worksupporting arm, a main feed bar extending lengthwise of the arm andcarrying said main feed dog, an

auxiliary feed bar extending lengthwise of the arm and carrying saidauxiliary feed dog, means for bodily raising and lowering the feed bars,a rocking frame at the opposite end of the work supporting arm from thefeed dogs, means for oscillating the rocking frame, an arm carried bythe rocking frame and having a connection with the main feed bar and asecond arm carried by the rocking frame and having an independentconnection with the auxiliary feed bar, said connections between thearms on the rocking frame and the feed bars being adjustable whereby thestroke of the feed dogs may be independently adjusted.

3. A sewing machine including in combination a work supporting arm, amain feed dog and an auxiliary feed dogdisposed at one end of said worksupporting arm, a main feed bar extending lengthwise of the arm andcarrying said main feed dog, an auxiliary feed bar extending lengthwiseof the arm and carrying said auxiliary'feed dog, means for bodilyraising and lowering the feed bars, a rocking frame at the opposite endof the work supporting arm from the feed dogs, means for oscillating therocking frame an arm carried by the rocking frame and having aconnection with the main feed bar and a second arm carried by therocking frame and having an independent connection with the auxiliaryfeed bar, said connections between the arms on the rocking frame andthefeed bars being adjustable whereby the stroke of the feed dogs may beindependently adjusted, and a manually operable lever and devicescontrolled thereby for shifting the connection With the auxiliary feedbar for varying the throw thereof.

4. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm carried at the lower end of said depending support, ashaft in the arm carryingsaid depending support, an eccentric on saidsaft, a rocking frame at the lower end of the depending support anddevices operated by said eccentric for oscillating said rocking frame, amain feed bar extending lengthwise of said work supporting arm, a mainfeed dog carried thereby, devices formoving said main feed bar endwisefrom said rocking frame, a second eccentric on the shaft in the armprojecting from the standard, and devices actuated thereby and extendingthrough said depending support for raising and lowering the feed bar.

5. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm carried by the lower end of said depending support, ashaft in the arm carrying said depending support, an eccentric on saidshaft, a rock'- ing frame in the lower end of the depending support anddevices operated by said eccentric for oscillating said rockingframe, amain feed bar extending lengthwise of said work supporting arm, a mainfeed dog carried thereby, devices for moving said main feed bar endwisefrom said rocking frame, a second eccentric on the shaft in the armprojecting from the standard, and clevices actuated thereby andextending through said depending support for raising and lowering thefeed bar, said last named devices including means for bodily raising andlowering the feed bar whereby the feeding surface of the feed dog ismaintained in a horizontal position during all its movements.

6. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm carried by the lower end of the depending support, anactuating shaft in the arm carried by the standard, a main feed dog andan auxiliary feed dog disposed at the free .end of the work supportingarm,a rocking frame at the opposite end of the work supporting arm fromthe feed dog, a main feed barcarrying the main feed dog, an auxiliaryfee-d bar carrying the auxiliary feed dog, connections between the feedbars andthe rocking frame whereby the feed bars are moved 'e-ndwise asthe rocking frame oscillates, an eccentric on said actuating shaft,devices operated by said eccentric for oscillating'the rocking frame, a.second eccentric on said actuating shaft, and devices actuated therebyfor raising and lowering the feed dogs.

7 A sewing machine including in combi nation a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm carried by the lower end of the depending support, anactuating shaft in the arm carried bythe standard, a main feed dog andan auxiliary feed dog disposed at the free end of the work supportingarm, a rocking frame at the opposite end of the work support from thefeed dogs, a main feed bar carrying the main feed dog, an auxiliary feedbar carrying the auxiliary feed dog, connections between the feed barsand the rocking frame whereby said bars are moved endwise, meansactuated by said actuating shaft and extending through said dependingsupport for oscillating said rocking frame, and means extending throughsaid depending sup-port for raising and lowering the feed dogs, saidlast named means including devices for bodily raising and lowering thefeed bars whereby the feeding surfaces of the feed dogs are maintainedin a horizontal position during all their movements.

8. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm, carried by the lower end of the depending support, anactuating shaft in the arm carried by the standard, a main feed dog andan auxiliary feed dog disposed at the free end of the work supportingarm, a rocking frame at the opposite end of the work supporting armfrom. the feed dogs, a main feed bar carrying the main feed dog, anauxiliary feed bar carrying the auxiliary feed dog, connections betweenthe feed bars and the rocking frame whereby the feed bars are movedendwise as the rocking frame oscillates, an eccentric on said actuatingshaft, devices operated by said eccentric for oscillating the rockingframe, a second eccentric on said actuating shaft and devices actuatedthereby for raising and loweringthe feed dogs, said last named devicesincluding means for bodily raising and lowering the feed bars withouttilting the same, whereby the feeding surfaces of the feed dogs aremaintained in horizontal position during all their movements.

9. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm carried by the lower end of the depending support, saiddepending support being inclined to the vertical, a feed dog at the freeend of the work supporting arm, a feed bar extending length.-

wise of the work supporting arm and carryarm pro ecting from thestandard, a ho-r'izontal lever disposed intermediate the ends of thedepending support, means connected to one end of said lever foroscillating the same from the saidvshaft, theother end of said leverbeing substantially over the rocking frame, and a vertical linkconnecting said end of the lever with the rocking frame for oscillatingthe same.

10.. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojectingtherec from, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm carried by the lower end of said depending support, saiddepending support being inclined to the vertical, a main feed dog at theend of the work supporting arm, a main feed bar carrying said main feeddog, an auxiliary feed dog at the free end of said work'supporting arni,an auxiliary feed bar carrying said feed dog, a rocking frame at thelower end of said depending support and connections between the rockingframe and the feed bars for moving said bars back and forth, anactuating shaft in said arm projecting from the standard, a horizontallever disposed intermediate the ends of said depending support and meansfor oscillating said lever from said shaft, said horizontal lever havinga vertical link conection with the rocking frame for oscillating thesame.

11. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said.

arm, a work supporting arm carried by the lower end of said dependingsupport, said depending support being inclined to the vertical, a feeddog at the free end of the work supporting arm, a feed bar carrying saidfeed dog, a rocking frame at the lower end of said depending support andconnections therefrom to the feed bar for moving the same back andforth, an actuating shaft in said arm projecting from the standard, ahorizontal lever disposed intermediate the ends of said dependingsupport, and means for oscillating said lever from said shaft, saidhorizontal lever having a vertically arranged link connection with therocking frame for oscillating the same.

12. A sewing machine including in combination a standard, an armprojecting therefrom, a depending support carried by said arm, a worksupporting arm carried by the lower end of said depending support, saiddepending support being inclined to the vertical, a feed dog at the freeend of the work supporting arm, av feed bar carrying said feed dog, arocking frame at the lower end of said depending support and connectionstherefrom to the feed bar for moving the same back and forth, anactuating shaft in said arm projecting from the standard, an eccentricthereon, a horizontal lever disposed intermediate the ends of saiddepending support, said horizontal lever having a vertically arrangedlink connection with the rocking frame for oscillating the same, meansfor oscillating the lever from said eccentric, a second eccentric on theactuating eccentrics operate to bodily raise and lower 20 the feed bar.In testimony whereof, I afilx my signature,

SAMUELv GEORGE TATE.

